1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ice supplying apparatus capable of supplying ice formed by an ice maker, and a refrigerator having the same.
2. Background of the Invention
An ice maker is an apparatus for generating ice by removing heat from water. The ice maker is configured to make ice by cooling supplied water (ice making water), to separate the made ice, and to automatically store the separated ice.
Such an ice maker is implemented in various manners. For instance, the ice maker may be applied to a beverage device for providing cool beverage in facility such as a café or a fast food store, or may be mounted in a general refrigerator having a refrigerating/freezing function so that a user can directly take out ice by using an additional function. Alternatively, the ice maker may be mounted to a water purifier for purifying water by passing raw water through a filter.
Ice made by the ice maker is supplied to a user through an ice supplying apparatus. An ice discharge mode using the ice supplying apparatus includes a carved ice mode for discharging carved ice in a crushed manner. In the carved ice mode, part of crushed ice may scatter to the periphery of a cup.
In order to prevent such scattering of crushed ice, research is being actively ongoing for an enhanced structure of the ice supplying apparatus. For instance, Korean Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-2001-0026389 (2001 Apr. 6) discloses a structure to reduce the amount of ice scattered, by adding a cover fixing unit for preventing movement of a scattering preventing cover.
However, the technique has a limitation in substantially reducing the amount of ice scattered, because a structure for preventing movement of a discharge guide unit is added to the conventional structure, without differently designing a discharge structure with consideration of an ice scattering direction.
Further, the amount of ice scattered becomes greatly different according to a position, a length, etc. of a discharge guide unit. Besides, since a size of the discharge guide unit is determined based on a size of ice cubes, the size of the discharge guide unit is increased when the size of the ice cubes is large. This may cause a limitation in reducing the amount of ice scattered.